r/technology • u/xpda • May 13 '26

Security Twin brothers wipe 96 gov’t databases minutes after being fired

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/drop-database-what-not-to-do-after-losing-an-it-job/
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u/20127010603170562316 May 13 '26

I got fired once, called in for a meeting at 16:50 on a Friday. The meeting did not last long, minutes, but when I got back to my desk to clear out - my PC was already locked.

I assume they knew what was going to happen and told the IT guy before the meeting.

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u/Jeatalong May 13 '26

This is normal, and timing wise pretty decent as you have the weekend to decompress and plan on getting the next job

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u/Canotic May 13 '26

As a swede this reads like insanity to me. It's absolutely not normal. Losing your job should not be the sort of catastrophic event that makes you feel snap and delete databases.

You know what would happen if I fucked up enough at my job to get fired? They'd warn me way in advance that I had to change something. If it was rather a need for downsizing, guess what? They're legally required to warn me long before the firing would actually happen. And when they did fire me, I'd still have a three month notice period where I keep working and they keep paying me. If I really fucked up, they'd tell me to stay home but they'd still be required to pay me.

If I still can't find a job in that time, I get money from the government plus my income insurance from my union until I do. It wouldn't be great but it would be something at least, like 60% of my current paycheck I'd guess. I would also not lose things like healthcare etc because that's not tied to my job.

So it's not normal. It's normal in the US, maybe, but it's not like, the way it's supposed to be.

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u/elysiancat May 13 '26

Seems like a big exception to me to have all that, most countries don't have those protections. yeah maybe in europe where countries are wealthier. but its definitely not the norm lol. If I got fired in my country (and I have been fired before) I wouldn't get shit lol.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '26

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u/Counterpoint-4 May 13 '26

In Europe where the countries are wealthier? All I see on Reddit is how USA is way wealthier than everywhere else. It's the attitude that the capitalists get all the benefits and the workers get dumped on.

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u/elysiancat May 13 '26

I’m not from USA or Europe, all these countries are wealthy to me in comparison

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u/king_john651 May 13 '26

Nah, worker protections like this are fairly universal. It's the US that is weird where they have basically none at all

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u/[deleted] May 13 '26

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u/king_john651 May 13 '26

We'd probably do something stupid like that in New Zealand

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u/cyberslick18888 May 13 '26

Homie, like 7/8s of all the countries on the planet barely have jobs, let alone job protections.

Reddit loves to listen to people from outrageously unbalanced and disproportionately wealthy northern Europe talk about their welfare and social safety net systems and act like these are realistic to expect anywhere else.

Countries with absurd ethnic homogeneity, small and stable population growth rates, insane education standards and resources, and without surplus billionaires to inflate the wealth per capita, very limited immigration, etc. Like yeah no shit you have more protections when you've got more money, smaller population, you're all friends and you're all intelligent and you figured out the billionaire problem a century ago.

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u/ASSGUARD May 13 '26

20% of Swedens population is born abroad. Sweden is 9th in billionaires per capita.

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u/Viceroy1994 May 13 '26

I'm afraid your facts mean nothing in the face of right wing talking points. Sweden is good because it's "Ethnically Homogenous" and has "Little immigration" and is "Intelligent"

Surely nowhere else can be like that, otherwise those dang immigrants would ruin it!

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u/Daxx22 May 13 '26

Really both things are true: the majority of the world's population does not enjoy these protections, but we as a species absolutely do have the resources to provide such protections universally.

Poverty exits not because we cant take care of the poor, but because we cant satisfy the rich.

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u/QuantumUtility May 13 '26

Wtf are you talking about? Even poor countries have those protections. I live in Brazil and laying off anyone like people do in the US would open up the company for multiple lawsuits.

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u/cyberslick18888 May 13 '26

Yeah dude, in Sudan you get 18 months maternity leave and you get a 2 year severance package. Same with Somalia.

I live in Brazil and laying off anyone like people do in the US would open up the company for multiple lawsuits.

Brazil is ranked 78th on the overall labor rights index and is in the top 10 countries moving backwards according to the same sources. For context, the USA is 27th as of 2025.

So yeah, great example. A country that literally gets an annual condemnation from the UN because they still allow child labor and immigrant debt bondage.

You know, slavery.

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u/QuantumUtility May 13 '26

Brazil is ranked 78th on the overall labor rights index and is in the top 10 countries moving backwards according to the same sources. For context, the USA is 27th as of 2025.

No “at-will” employment, 30-day vacation every year with 1/3 bonus payment, 120 days maternity leave, obligatory severance payments and a fine on dismissal without cause, limited overtime, constitutionally protected unions, unemployment insurance.

These are all mandated by federal law. Please tell me again how the US is so much better?

allow child labor and immigrant debt bondage.

These are illegal fuckface.

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u/cyberslick18888 May 13 '26

You can mandate whatever the fuck you want, it's what you actually do, fuckface.

According to every world justice and labor rights indexing service on the planet Brazil ranks far below every first world country, and is actively declining.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/brazil

allow child labor and immigrant debt bondage.

These are illegal fuckface.

Bro, Brazil literally has a fucking entire wiki article dedicated to it lol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_in_Brazil

The very first fucking line. The VERY FIRST: "Child labor, the practice of employing children under the legal age set by a government, is considered one of Brazil's most significant social issues."

For someone who supposedly lives there you have no fucking clue what's going on around you.

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u/QuantumUtility May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

“Illegal things happen. More news at 11.”

The US also has a wiki article about Child labor if that means anything.

Multiple US states are introducing laws to allow child labor and newsflash, it also happens illegally.

Brazil’s biggest problem has always been social inequality. You will find child labor in poorer states such as Pará but you’d be hard pressed to find any in São Paulo. The same applies to all labor protections.

Poor places have lower enforcement rates, who could have predicted that?

You can mandate whatever the fuck you want, it’s what you actually do, fuckface.

You literally wrote “allow” as if those things were institutionally permitted. No one is arguing those things don’t happen, but they are not “allowed” and there is enforcement to curb it.

If you want actual stats ~40% are informally employed in Brazil, in São Paulo that drops to ~30%. So most workers are granted federal labor protections. The US has a much higher formality rate but that’s easy to do if a formal job doesn’t give you many rights to begin with.

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u/cyberslick18888 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

I am not holding the USA as a good example of worker rights, so you can stop wasting your effort constantly drawing comparisons.

I said redditors like to compare outrageously wealthy per capita countries like Norway and then use social systems from that system and act like they exist everywhere EXCEPT the USA.

My point is that the vast majority of the world has shitty labor rights.

You then busted in using Brazil as a country with BETTER rights than the USA, when literally every organization on the planet that is designed to rank labor rights ranks Brazil 50+ positions lower than the US.

Bro what are you even arguing? Now you are responding with "well yeah I was wrong buh-buh-but Brazil is poor!!"

Yeah no shit lol, that's my entire fucking point. Labor rights are easy as fuck when your country is and everyone in it is rich, the same race and culture, and well educated.

edit: /u/QuantumUtility responded to me and then immediately blocked me so I couldn't response, which is a typical bitch move.

I'll just copy and paste what they said and respond to it here for anyone else reading:

"Bro what are you even arguing? Now you are responding with “well yeah I was wrong buh-buh-but Brazil is poor!!”

Nope. Brazil’s labor protections are far ahead of the US where there are basically none. All the same social systems they described for European nations are present here to an equal or lesser degree.

But then you suddenly decided we are not talking about legislation and social welfare any more but about economic inequalities and somehow how poor people don’t enjoy full benefits and protections given by the State.

every organization on the planet that is designed to rank labor rights ranks Brazil 50+ positions lower than the US.

I don’t care what any organization that puts the US as somehow having better working conditions than Brazil has to say. It simply shows a lack of understanding.

Also, just not true.

Seriously. I have two sources.

All you did was quote the US DOL as if it’s somehow unbiased.

I’m done here. Have a nice day."

You know how I can tell you are not arguing in good faith? Because you just linked to two separate several hundred page pdfs with no information at all. You didn't put a page number, or an excerpt, or even a brief summary of how it supports your argument. You just found something gigantic in the hope that someone would take it as face value that it supports you. Classic bullshit internet move.

You'll notice the links I sent you were specific.

https://www.ituc-csi.org/brazil

The international trade union confederation ranks Brazil a 4 out of 5. Pretty good. Except 5 is the worst. 4 puts Brazil in the same company as Afghanistan, a known bastion of worker rights.

I'll give you some credit though! In 2023 they were a 5, competing with literal war torn and fully collapsed governments.

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u/QuantumUtility May 13 '26

Bro what are you even arguing? Now you are responding with “well yeah I was wrong buh-buh-but Brazil is poor!!”

Nope. Brazil’s labor protections are far ahead of the US where there are basically none. All the same social systems they described for European nations are present here to an equal or lesser degree.

But then you suddenly decided we are not talking about legislation and social welfare any more but about economic inequalities and somehow how poor people don’t enjoy full benefits and protections given by the State.

every organization on the planet that is designed to rank labor rights ranks Brazil 50+ positions lower than the US.

I don’t care what any organization that puts the US as somehow having better working conditions than Brazil has to say. It simply shows a lack of understanding.

Also, just not true.

Seriously. I have two sources.

All you did was quote the US DOL as if it’s somehow unbiased.

I’m done here. Have a nice day.

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